Newsline - September 11, 1995

Vol. 1, No. 176, 11 September 1995YELTSIN DENOUNCES NATO. On the eve of a special session of the Duma to
discuss the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, President Boris Yeltsin lashed
out at NATO but also criticized Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, international
media reported on 8 August. Calling NATO's airstrikes on Bosnian Serb
positions"unacceptable," Yeltsin said Russia might send assistance
other than humanitarian aid to Serbia if the airstrikes continued, and he
renewed his call for an international conference on the Yugoslav conflict in
Moscow in October. The president reiterated Russian opposition to NATO's
expansion to the "borders of Russia," which he said would "light the fires of
war all over Europe." By its actions in Bosnia, he said, NATO "showed what it
is capable of." Anticipating criticism of Kozyrev, Yeltsin noted his
"dissatisfaction," with the ministry, saying that if its work did not improve,
he would draw "the appropriate conclusions." -- Scott Parrish

DUMA PASSES RESOLUTION ON YUGOSLAV CONFLICT. At its special session on 9
September, the State Duma criticizedYeltsin, Foreign Minister Andrei
Kozyrev, and NATO, Russian and Western agencies reported. After a heated
debate, during which extreme proposals to dispatch troops to Serbia and recall
all ambassadors from NATO countries were discussed, the Duma passed a
resolution calling on Yeltsin to fire Kozyrev, withdraw Russia from UN
sanctions against rump Yugoslavia, impose a trade embargo against Croatia, and
suspend Russian participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace program. The
resolution, which is not binding on the president, passed 258-2 with 3
abstentions. Many liberal deputies boycotted the session. -- Scott Parrish

BRAWL ERUPTS IN DUMA. A fistfight broke out during the Duma debate on
Bosnia when Nikolai Lysenko, leader of the right-wing National-Republican Party
of Russia, tore a 19th-century cross from the neck of dissident priest Gleb
Yakunin of the Russia's Choice bloc, Russian media reported on 9 September.
Liberal-Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky quickly joined the brawl,
attacking deputy Yevgeniya Tishkovskaya, who was trying to defend Yakunin.
Lysenko refused to return the cross to Yakunin, who was defrocked in 1993 after
disobeying an Orthodox Church order not to run for parliament. Yakunin vowed to
press robbery charges against Lysenko, according to ITAR-TASS. -- Laura Belin

UNION OF LABOR SELECTS CANDIDATES. Russian United Industrial Party
chairman Vladimir Shcherbakov, Federation of Independent Trade Unions leader
Mikhail Shmakov, and Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs
president Arkadii Volskii were chosen to top the party list of the new
electoral bloc "Trade Unions and Industrialists of Russia-Union of Labor,"
ITAR-TASS reported on 8 September. The group's creation deals another blow to
the electoral prospects of Duma Speaker Ivan Rybkin, who has tried to recruit
major trade union and industrial groups for his left-center electoral bloc. --
Laura Belin

UNION OF PATRIOTS HOLDS CONGRESS. More than 20 groups, including the
Union of Veterans and the All-Military Union, came together for the first
congress of the Union of Patriots in Moscow, Russian media reported on 8
September. The movement's party list for December's parliamentary elections
will be headed by three generals: All-Russian Officers' Assembly leader
Vladislav Achalov, Russian National Assembly chairman Aleksandr Sterligov, and
1991 putschist Aleksandr Tizyakov, more recently affiliated with the
Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, according to Segodnya
on 9 September. Sterligov said that all the candidates have passed blood-line
checks to verify that they are of Russian descent, NTV reported on 10
September. -- Laura Belin

ACCUSATIONS OF CRIMINAL TIES SPLIT RUTSKOI'S DERZHAVA. Former Vice
President Aleksandr Rutskoi tried to restore confidence in his Derzhava party
at its 9 September congress after eight prominent members left, claiming that,
to secure financial support, Rutskoi had included criminals in his party list.
Among those leaving were former USSR People's Deputy Col. Viktor Alksnis,
Chairman of the Russian National Legal Center Mikhail Astafev, and
Christian-Democrat leader Viktor Aksyuchits, NTV reported. The critics
specifically attacked Viktor Kobelev, Vladimir Zhirinovsky's former campaign
manager, who is now no. 2 on Derzhava's list, ITAR-TASS reported. Rutskoi
withdrew the party's list from the Central Electoral Committee in order to
review its members. The congress changed the movement's official name to
Derzhava-Rutskoi. -- Robert Orttung

HIGH COURT JUSTICE UNDER FIRE FOR SPEAKING OUT ON FEDERATION COUNCIL . . .
Constitutional Court Chairman Vladimir Tumanov is being criticized for
commenting on the court's possible decision on the law determining formation of
the Federation Council. By appearing to support President Boris Yeltsin in this
dispute with the parliament, Tumanov may have damaged his own reputation and
the court's authority, Kommersant-Daily reported on 9 September. Tumanov
had suggested that the law stipulating that the Federation Council be elected,
which Yeltsin vetoed on 12 August, would have been found to be
unconstitutional. Russian law prohibits judges from expressing their attitude
toward cases they are considering. -- Robert Orttung

. . . BUT CASE MAY NOT MATTER. Yeltsin announced on 8 September that he
will sign a presidential decree on the formation of the parliament's upper
house in the coming weeks, ITAR-TASS reported. The next Federation Council will
be formed from representatives of the executive and legislative branches in
Russia's 89 regions and republics and 4 or 5 representatives of the federal
government. The current council has no deputies representing the federal
government, and the innovation will allow Yeltsin to reappoint current
Federation Council Speaker Vladimir Shumeiko, who has loyally supported the
president's policies. -- Robert Orttung

ARMY CAN'T BUY ALL THE TANKS IT NEEDS. The Ministry of Defense had
planned to renew Russia's tank inventory completely by 2001 with modern tanks,
but it cannot afford to, ITAR-TASS reported on 7 September, quoting the head of
the ministry's Armor Department. Col.-Gen. Aleksandr Galkin said that the
re-equipment scheme calls for 300 new tanks per year, but the military can only
afford to buy between 60 and 80. He said the army has only 107 of the best new
tanks, the T-90s, all stationed in Siberia. Reuters quoted Galkin as saying
that 307 Russian tanks were destroyed by Chechen separatists. In a related
story, the Sverdlovsk regional governor complained to ITAR-TASS on 7 September
that the Uralvagonzavod plant in Nizhniy Tagil--which builds T-90s--has 350
modern tanks in its inventory that the government cannot afford to buy. He said
that the factory cannot get permission to sell them to other customers. -- Doug
Clarke

YELTSIN UNHAPPY WITH ILYUSHENKO. In what could signal the end of the
career of acting Procurator-General Aleksei Ilyushenko, Yeltsin said on 8
September that he is dissatisfied with the procurator's work and is unlikely to
nominate him for the permanent position, Russian and Western agencies reported.
Yeltsin made Ilyushenko procurator-general in December 1993, but the parliament
twice refused to approve his appointment. Ilyushenko has been criticized for
failing to solve the murders of prominent businessmen and journalists. The
campaign against him in the media heated up this summer after he prosecuted the
channel's popular puppet show "Kukly" for slander and tried to bring charges
against an NTV journalist who interviewed a Chechen separatist leader. An NTV
report noted that Yeltsin's criticism of Ilyushenko came only days after the
latter closed the investigation into the bloody events of October 1993, blame
for which he pinned equally on executive authorities and supporters of the
Supreme Soviet. -- Penny Morvant

CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION PROMISED. Interior Minister Anatolii Kulikov
said on 9 September that the main aim of reform in his ministry is to fight
official corruption and ensure the security of individuals. Kulikov said police
were investigating 1,600 cases of links between criminal groups and the upper
echelons of power and that the criminal world spent an estimated 30%-50% of its
income on bribing state officials, Russian and Western agencies reported.
Kulikov added that crime in Russia grew 5% in the first eight months of this
year compared with the same period in 1994 but homicide is down 7%. -- Penny
Morvant

YELTSIN URGES GENTLE EASING OF STRICT FINANCIAL POLICIES. Yeltsin said
in an 8 September press conference that the economy is showing signs of
stabilization and, while strict financial policies should continue, the reins
must be loosened to pay pensions and salaries, Russia and Western agencies
reported the same day. The president signed a decree on 7 September ordering
the Central Bank to allot 2 trillion rubles ($450 million) to clear pension
arrears. At the conference, Yeltsin blamed the government for delays in paying
pensions and salaries and claimed that there were resources available to remedy
the problem. -- Thomas Sigel

OMRI DAILY DIGEST

Vol. 1, No. 176, 11 September 1995POLICE IN ALMATY THREATEN ACTION OVER PAY. Police in the Kazakh capital,
Almaty, have threatened to take "exceptional action" starting 18 September if
the government fails to pay their back wages and raise salaries,
Karavan-Blitz reported on 5 September. According to the paper, an open
letter to the government appeared on the front page of the Interior Ministry's
newspaper Na strazhe on 31 August, describing the grievances of the
police, who work 12-14 hours daily for 6,000 tenge ($100) a month. It is
unclear what action police will take, as employees of internal-affairs agencies
are forbidden to go on strike. Karavan-blitz quoted a spokesman for the
Internal Affairs Ministry's personnel department as saying that, due to low
wages, the number of police taking bribes is increasing; 1,500 people have been
fired on that account this year alone. -- Bhavna Dave

KYRGYZ TRADE UNIONS DEMAND MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE. Kyrgyzstan's
Federation of Trade Unions has called on President Askar Akaev to raise the
minimum wage immediately and increase benefits for workers, the Khabar news
agency reported on 7 September. The union leaders termed the parliament's
decision not to review minimum wages until the end of the year an "anti-popular
measure," complaining that the government's promises and various decrees on
raising wages have not been implemented. The federation proposed that funds for
wage increases could be raised by cutting the republic's central and local
administrative apparatus. -- Bhavna Dave

TURKMEN, UKRAINIAN, AND IRANIAN OFFICIALS MEET. Building on talks held
in Iran last April, the foreign ministers of Turkmenistan, Iran, and Ukraine
began talks in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, on 9 September, Russian sources
reported. Discussion is expected to focus on trilateral economic projects, such
as development of the Caspian Sea's offshore oil field, construction of new oil
and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, and upgrading of existing pipelines.
Ukraine is also looking to devise a payment system for Turkmen gas supplies,
and Turkmenistan and Iran are interested in buying machine-building and
instrument-engineering technology from Ukraine. -- Bruce Pannier

RUSSIA PRESSING ABKHAZIA TO COME TO TERMS WITH GEORGIA. In a telephone
conversation with Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze on 8 September, Russian
President Boris Yeltsin pledged to take steps to restore Georgia's territorial
integrity, Russian and Western agencies reported. Talks between Georgia and the
breakaway region of Abkhazia broke down in Moscow on 1 September. On 7
September, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Boris Pastukhov blamed the Abkhaz
side for the failure of the talks and threatened to withdraw the 3,000 Russian
peacekeepers who have policed the Abkhaz-Georgian border since October 1993.
The Abkhaz leadership insists that Abkhaz sovereignty be recognized before
talks can continue. Shevardnadze accused the Abkhaz of obstructing the talks in
the hope that more sympathetic politicians will emerge from the December
parliamentary elections in Russia. -- Peter Rutland

NEW CURRENCY FOR GEORGIA. The president of the Georgian National Bank,
Nodar Dzhavakhishvili, told Georgian Radio on 8 September that a new currency,
the lari, will replace the temporary coupon later this year. The coupon fell
from its 1993 introductory rate of 5,000 to the dollar to more than 2 million
to the dollar at the end of 1994. In 1995, the government tightened monetary
policy, stabilizing the value of the coupon at around 1.3 million to the
dollar. This has prompted the IMF to offer a $157 million loan to back the new
currency, which will be set at $0.77 per lari. -- Peter Rutland

NO PROGRESS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH TALKS. The latest round of talks in
Moscow over the future of Nagorno-Karabakh, which began on 4 September, ended
without resolution on 9 September, ITAR-TASS reported the same day. The "Minsk
Group" of representatives from the OSCE, which is mediating the talks, will
meet in Moscow on 11 September. On 9 September it was announced that UN
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali will send Undersecretary-General Aldo
Ajello as a special envoy to the region. -- Peter Rutland

OMRI DAILY DIGEST

Vol. 1, No. 176, 11 September 1995WALESA REGISTERS FIRST. Polish President Lech Walesa was the first
candidate to submit the 100,000 supporting signatures required for a place on
the ballot for the 5 November elections, Rzeczpospolita reported. The
deadline to submit supporting signatures expires on 28 September. Democratic
Left Alliance leader Aleksander Kwasniewski and Freedom Union candidate Jacek
Kuron are believed to be the only other candidates to have so far collected the
100,000 minimum. In other election news, former Broadcasting Council Chairman
Marek Markiewicz on 8 September agreed to enter the presidential race, provided
opinion polls indicate sufficient support for his candidacy by mid-October. --
Louisa Vinton

ZLOTY APPRECIATION SPARKS CONFLICT IN POLAND. The value of the Polish
zloty rose by 1% against most hard currencies on 8 September, amid renewed
conflict between National Bank President Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and Deputy
Prime Minister and Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko. The National Bank
criticized Kolodko for sparking speculative purchases of Treasury bills by
suggesting the previous day that the Polish economy could withstand dramatic
appreciation of the zloty. Kolodko argued that appreciation would work best to
curb inflationary inflows of hard currency. The bank countered that the
government should reduce import tariffs and allow exporters to retain
hard-currency earnings, Rzeczpospolita reported. -- Louisa Vinton

DOMINANT CZECH PARTY CHOOSES ELECTION LEADERS. The Executive Council of
the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) met on 9 September to choose 14 leading
politicians to spearhead the party's campaign for next year's parliamentary
elections. Two politicians will lead the campaign in each of the Czech
Republic's seven regions. Among the election leaders are Prime Minister Vaclav
Klaus, six other cabinet ministers, the current chairman and a deputy chairman
of the parliament, and Czech Ambassador to Slovakia Filip Sedivy. The list also
includes two leading members of the Christian Democratic Party, which is due to
merge with the ODS before the elections. -- Steve Kettle

SLOVAK PREMIER ON RELATIONS WITH HUNGARY. Vladimir Meciar on 8 September
addressed the parliament to discuss a 29 August meeting with his Hungarian
counterpart, Gyula Horn, Narodna obroda and TASR reported. Meciar said
the talks focused on the issue of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam dispute, which
was taken to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 1993. Although
the two sides are trying to reach a mutually acceptable agreement out of court,
the case will remain before the court for now, Meciar said. Economic
concerns--including the construction of a highway between Bratislava and Gyor,
to be completed by late 1997--were also discussed. Meciar also said the
controversial draft law on the state language will be discussed with the
Council of Europe before being submitted to the parliament. Finally, the
premier announced the Slovak-Hungarian treaty will be presented to the
parliament for ratification in November. -- Sharon Fisher

UPDATE ON HUNGARIAN COALITION. The two Hungarian coalition partners--the
Hungarian Socialist Party and the Alliance of Free Democrats--have agreed to
set up two working groups to define the norms of cooperation and to review
certain provisions of the coalition agreement, which deal with government
structure, institutional guarantees, and operational rules. Negotiations
between the two partners ended last week with the Socialists, in particular,
making many compromises (see OMRI Daily Digest, 7 September 1995). Some
opposition parties have called the present political situation in Hungary a
"government crisis" or the coalition's "loss of prestige." The government has
commented that disputes within a government coalition are "natural." -- Zsofia
Szilagyi

BELARUSIAN POLITICAL CRISIS CONTINUES. Belarusian TV on 7 September
quoted Leanid Sinitsyn, head of the president's administration, as saying the
president and parliament agreed in May that the legitimacy of the legislature
was questionable since its term had expired and that it could continue to meet
only in cases of extraordinary events "such as war." Sinitsyn thus charged that
the parliamentary session that began on 6 September was destabilizing and
invalid. The deputies' decision to lower the minimum voter turnout requirement
from 50% to 25% for elections to be valid was "detrimental" to the new
parliament since it meant some deputies would have been elected under one set
of regulations and others under another. He said the president agreed that a
state cannot be without a legislature and was ready to take all necessary
measures to have a new parliament elected--but not under new regulations. --
Ustina Markus

HEAD OF NATIONAL BANK OF BELARUS TO QUIT. Radio Mayak on 9 September
reported that head of the National Bank of Belarus Stanislau Bahdankevich has
submitted his resignation. Bahdankevich said he was stepping down because
"contradictory" banking legislation issued by the president's administration
and the prime minister demanded that supervision of the commercial bank
Belarusbanka cease and that the bank be united with the state bank Sberbank.
Under Belarusian law, only the parliament can accept Bahdankevich's
resignation. -- Ustina Markus

LATVIAN SAEIMA APPROVES REGULATIONS ON HUMAN RIGHTS BUREAU. The Saeima
has approved regulations on the Human Rights Bureau that were issued by the
cabinet while the parliament was not in session, BNS reported on 8 September.
The rules established an independent state institution that would consider
residents' complaints about human rights violations. Chairman of the Saeima
State Administration and Local Governments Committee Janis Lagzdins said the
institution was already operating, although the Saeima had not confirmed its
head. His committee had drafted an alternative bill that would have narrowed
the functions of the bureau, but the Saeima rejected the draft. -- Saulius
Girnius

LOW AUGUST INFLATION IN BALTIC STATES. The Lithuanian Statistics
Department announced that inflation fell from 2.7% in July to 0.4% in August,
BNS reported on 7 September. The price of consumer goods and services rose by
3.3%, housing and energy by 2.6% and clothing by 2%, but the price of food fell
by 0.6%. The Estonian Statistics Department reported that the consumer price
index declined from 1.7% in July to 0.6% in August. The cost of goods in August
increased by 0.8% (food products by 0.4% and manufactured goods by 1.5%) and
services by 0.4%. The situation in Latvia was even more favorable, with the
consumer price index in August falling by 0.3% from July, BNS reported on 8
September. The price of food decreased by 2%, with a 20% decrease for fruits
and vegetables. The cost of medical services increased by 2.8%. -- Saulius
Girnius

OMRI DAILY DIGEST

Vol. 1, No. 176, 11 September 1995NATO HITS SERBS WITH CRUISE MISSILES. International media on 10
September reported that 13 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from the USS
Normandy in the Adriatic against the Bosnian Serb air defense system around
Banja Luka. NATO air strikes were suspended for a few hours earlier in the day
while UN commander General Bernard Janvier met with the Serbs' General Ratko
Mladic. The latter again refused to agree to the UN's key demand that he take
heavy weapons outside the 20 km exclusion zone around Sarajevo. He had earlier
claimed that the artillery is necessary "to protect the Serbian population,"
the VOA said. This marks the first use of the missiles in the Yugoslav
conflict, a step taken because piloted aircraft have had difficulty operating
in the current bad weather conditions. A NATO spokesman denied Serbian charges
that the use of the Tomahawks constituted an escalation. The extent of the
damage the missiles caused is not yet clear. -- Patrick Moore

"BOSNIAN ALCHEMY." This is how Nasa Borba on 11 September
described the brief document signed in Geneva on 8 September by the foreign
ministers of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and rump Yugoslavia. The text is the
result of weeks of shuttle diplomacy by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
Richard Holbrooke, who called it "an important milestone in the search for
peace." The International Herald Tribune on 9 September also quoted him
as saying that "significant differences exist between the sides." Among the
unresolved points of contention is mutual diplomatic recognition, particularly
that of Bosnia by rump Yugoslavia. -- Patrick Moore

SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY? The accord is sufficiently broad and vague as
to allow mutually contradictory interpretations. The Bosnian government, for
example, might stress the point that the country will remain one state, while
the Serbs would point to the provision for "parallel special relationships"
with neighboring countries. That clause opens the way for the Bosnian Serbs to
have links to Belgrade similar to those the Croat-Muslim federation will have
to Zagreb. Novi list on 11 September cited Oslobodjenje's
paradoxical headline that "Bosnia [remains] whole in two parts." The agreement
does not even begin to deal with the thorny issue of territorial divisions,
except to take the Contact Group's 51-49% figure as a starting point. It also
allows for the possibility that the results of "ethnic cleansing" will become
permanent by stipulating that displaced persons may either go home or receive
compensation for what they lost. -- Patrick Moore

CROATIA REMAINS FIRM ON EASTERN SLAVONIA. Croatian Foreign Minister Mate
Granic said in Geneva on 9 September that Serbia is trying to "buy time" and
keep control of prosperous eastern Slavonia by not recognizing Croatia. Ranking
diplomat Miomir Zuzul told news agencies that Zagreb wants a peaceful solution
to the problem but that it is prepared to wait only two or three more months.
Reuters reported the following day that there was no sign of Croatia or Serbia
implementing an agreement to withdraw heavy weapons from the confrontation line
there. Slobodna Dalmacija on 11 September quoted Health Minister Andrija
Hebrang as saying that some 70% of the Croatian medical personnel, who fled
Krajina following the Serbian conquest of it in 1991, now refuse to go back.
Nasa Borba reported on the pilot project for Donji Lapac of the Serbian
Community in Croatia's Commission for Human Rights. The aim is to encourage
Krajina Serbs to return home, but the Serbs fear their property has been
destroyed and that they will not enjoy full rights. -- Patrick Moore

ROMANIAN EXTREMIST PARTY WANTS "AUTHORITARIAN RULE." Corneliu Vadim
Tudor, leader of the extremist Greater Romania Party, told a press conference
carried by Radio Bucharest on 8 September that one of his party's two slogans
for the 1996 general elections will be "[Romania needs] two years of
authoritarian rule." Tudor said it was not true that Romania's wartime
dictator, Marshal Ion Antonescu, had been responsible for ordering massacres of
Jews. On the contrary, he said, hundreds of thousands of Jews "owe him their
lives" and it was "outrageous" for Jews to "claim from Romania restitution or
compensation of billions of dollars for an invented Holocaust." Tudor also said
that in view of the NATO strikes in Bosnia--which had transformed that
organization, as well as the UN, into "executioners of the Serbian people and
into murderers of children"--the Romanian people should be asked in a
referendum whether they still wanted to join NATO, whose "hands are stained
with the blood of Iraqi and Serbian infants." -- Michael Shafir

FIRST NATO MILITARY EXERCISE IN ROMANIA. A NATO exercise involving 440
troops from Germany, Luxemburg, Holland, Turkey and the U.S. (from among member
states) and Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania (from among the
signatories of the Partnership for Peace program) began on 10 September near
the Transylvanian town of Sibiu. The exercise, the first of its kind in
Romania, will last five days and simulate the setting up of peacekeeping units
and extending humanitarian help, National Defense Minister Gheorge Tinca said
in an interview with Radio Bucharest on 9 September. At a press conference in
Sibiu, he said in response to a question about Russian President Boris
Yeltsin's position on NATO enlargement that Moscow was entitled to its own
opinions but that the issue concerns "the sovereign decision of Central
European states that wish to be integrated into NATO structures." -- Michael
Shafir

MOLDOVA WILL NOT JOIN NATO. Moldova is taking part in the Partnership
for Peace program but does not intend to join NATO structures because it is a
neutral state, Foreign Minister Mihai Popov said at a press conference in
Chisinau at the end of Latvian Foreign Minister Valdis Birkav's visit to
Moldova. BASA-press reported on 8 September that Popov said Moldova "would not
like to play the role of buffer between the two blocs and its security should
not be damaged." In his opinion, the PFP program should involve rather than
isolate Russia. Popov and Birkavs on 8 September signed a protocol on
cooperation and consultations and initialed a treaty of friendship, Moldovan
press agencies reported. -- Michael Shafir

RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR ON TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM MOLDOVA. Aleksandr Papkin,
Russia's new ambassador to Moldova, told the Chisinau Russian-language daily
Kishinyovskie Novosti that the countdown for the withdrawal of his
country's troops from Moldova will begin only when the State Duma ratifies the
withdrawal agreement. BASA-press on 9 September quoted Papkin as saying the
government has already taken "some concrete steps" to reduce the contingent,
although it was not legally obliged to do so before ratification of the
agreement. He said the three-year timetable for the withdrawal was imposed "by
natural factors" and that the "evacuation of munitions in a shorter period is
impossible." -- Michael Shafir

UKRAINE JOINS TRANSDNIESTRIAN PEACE PROCESS. Ukrainian Charge d'Affaires
in Moldova Yevhen Levitsky told Infotag on 8 September that a representative of
President Leonid Kuchma will participate in the Chisinau-Tiraspol negotiations
scheduled for 13 September. Ukrainian Premier Yevhen Marchuk said at the end of
a visit to Moldova last month that his country will take part in the
peacekeeping process (See OMRI Daily Digest, 30 August 1995). Levitsky
said Ukraine's participation has been approved by both sides in the conflict as
well as by the Russian and OSCE mediators. -- Michael Shafir

BULGARIAN POLITICAL ROUNDUP. The Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) on 8
September announced it will ask for a vote of no confidence in the government,
Standart reported the following day. The SDS said it was responding to
Prime Minister Zhan Videnov's refusal to dismiss Interior Minister Lyubomir
Nachev and Transport Minister Stamen Stamenov, whom the opposition blames for
the death of 14 soldiers in a road crash (see OMRI Daily Digest, 14 and
25 August 1995). In other news, about 15,000 people demonstrated in Sofia on 9
September to mark the 51st anniversary of the communist accession to power in
1944, which they described as the "victory over fascism," AFP reported the same
day. Some 5,000 SDS supporters staged a demonstration to commemorate the
victims of the communist regime. -- Stefan Krause

GREECE, RUSSIA ON BOSNIA. Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev on 8
September met with Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and Foreign Minister
Karolos Papoulias in Thessaloniki, AFP reported the same day. Both sides
criticized the NATO air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs and once again called
for a political solution to the crisis. Kozyrev told a news conference that
Russia and Greece will begin joint efforts to end the crisis. The three leaders
also reached a verbal agreement to go ahead with the construction of a $1
billion oil pipeline from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna to
Alexandroupolis, in northern Greece, international agencies reported the same
day. -- Stefan Krause

GREEK-MACEDONIAN UPDATE. The foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia,
Karolos Papoulias and Stevo Crvenkovski, on 9 September left for New York,
where they are expected to sign a bilateral agreement on 14 September, AFP
reported. Before leaving Athens, Papoulias said the small number of problems to
be settled are no obstacle to signing the accord. He described the agreement as
"a historical accord...that at last frees [Greek] foreign policy." Greek media
suggested that Greece will propose that the name issue be resolved by
Macedonia's using two or even three names--one for internal use and one or two
for international and Greek use. -- Stefan Krause

ROMANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER IN ALBANIA. At the end of his two-day visit to
Albania, Romanian Defense Minister Gheorghe Tinca was received by President
Sali Berisha, Radio Bucharest announced on 9 September, citing ATA. Tinca and
his Albanian counterpart, Safet Zhulali, signed a joint declaration on
cooperation. Tinca said talks focused on the exchange of information about the
two countries' armies, cooperation possibilities, participation in the
Partnership for Peace program, and the two countries' membership in NATO. --
Michael Shafir and Fabian Schmidt

FORMER LEADER OF ALBANIAN YOUTH FORUM RELEASED FROM PRISON. Arben Lika,
former leader of the Albanian Youth Forum and parliamentary deputy for the
Democratic Party, has been released from prison after serving about 10 months
for smuggling cigarettes worth some $30,000 and forging documents, Koha
Jone reported on 9 September. The 27-year-old Lika was arrested at the end
of October 1994 and sentenced to ten years in prison by a Tirana court. The
First Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to three years and Supreme Court
Chief Judge Zef Brozi subsequently gave him a 14-month sentence. Koha
Jone noted that there are no legal obstacles preventing Albania's youngest
legislator from returning to the parliament. -- Fabian Schmidt